Russian court keeps top director under house arrest

A Russian court today rejected acclaimed director Kirill Serebrennikov's appeal against his house arrest in a controversial fraud case that has sent shockwaves through the arts community.
"The Moscow city court decided not to change the decision - he remains under house arrest," a judiciary spokesman told AFP.
Top theatre and film director Serebrennikov was placed under house arrest last month until October 19, accused of defrauding the state of over USD 1 million in arts funding.
The director - who heads Moscow's Gogol Centre and staged productions at the Bolshoi theatre - has denounced the charges as "absurd".
Critics view the case as the latest crackdown on liberal culture in Vladimir Putin's Russia.

Leading Russian cultural figures and international artists including Cate Blanchett and Ian McKellen have called for Serebrennikov's release and want the charges dropped.
A Kremlin spokesman has denied that the case has anything to do with "politicisation, censorship", saying it is linked to "purely financial questions".
The court ruling today however allows Serebrennikov to walk around his district for two hours every evening, the court spokesman said.